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This book is an attempt to compile the Eskimo Curlew's history and what is known about its biology largely in the words of people who were its contemporaries. It brings together the observations and comments of more than 300 people who saw or talked with people who saw Eskimo Curlews. Most of these contacts between people and curlews occurred during the last half of the 19th century as "civilization" expanded in the New World and curlews went from great abundance to great scarcity. How various factors contributed to this decline cannot be documented, but it is possible that curlews were killed by man every day of the year through the 1870s a period of unregulated hunting and seemingly unlimited bird populations. As a result, this publication relies to a great extent on hunting experiences because more appears in print about them than about other aspects of the curlew's history.

At the same time, we are indebted to those who did hunt the species for most of what we know about its comings and goings, its numbers and its behavior. Among the people who have contributed much to our knowledge of Eskimo Curlews, and certainly not because of the numbers they killed, were George Cartwright, a pioneer trader in Labrador during the 1700s, who varied his diet with them; Roderick MacFarlane, who collected clutches of eggs in the Northwest Territories in the 1860s for the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; and George Mackay, who hunted birds for sport in Massachusetts through the last 40 years of the 1800s. Without these men, as well as John James Audubon, Elliott Coues (both collectors) and other hunters, our knowledge of the species would be negligible.

Prior to this publication, Iversen had written a 175-page manuscript on Eskimo Curlews as a personal project, and Gollop had co-authored a 54-page report in 1978 for the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). The present work resembles neither of these in planning or in format because of the decision to rely primarily on quotations and to treat the species on a geographical basis.

The major part of the text deals with the species geographically, beginning on the breeding grounds and following it through fall, winter and spring across two continents along a route of more than 30,000 km (19,000 mi.). When data are available, each geographic unit is treated in five sections. (1) Specimens: Our best estimate of the number of museum specimens (excluding eggs) that have existed. Places where museum specimens were collected are marked with an asterisk (*), one for each specimen. Museum skins with no specific location given are not generally accounted for, whereas undated specimens are noted under DATES. (2) Status: A capsule statement based on a review at the literature of the curlew's occurrence when it was abundant, usually the 1870s and 1880s. If it has been reported since 1945, a status for RECENTLY has been added. This initial statement is usually followed by reports referring to the area as a whole and then to parts of it, although some of this information may occur later in the text. (3) Dates: A listing of all dates found, in the belief that a potential curlew watcher may wish to plan excursions knowing exactly when the bird has occurred (recognizing that pavement may cover many historical curlew sites). If a date has been reported five times in as many years, it appears five times. Dates for museum specimens (excluding eggs) are marked with an asterisk (*), one for each specimen. The most recent date is bold-faced. (4) Quotations: Organized, as much as possible, without breaking them into minute segments, so that information on numbers, habitat, behavior, voice, food, etc., is presented first followed by hunting, and finally by what is available on the species' decline in the area. In quoting sightings we have usually included information on the bird's biology and omitted details substantiating identification, except for unpublished reports. The first time a place- name appears in the text it is bold-faced, to facilitate finding locations not listed at the end of a geographical unit. We have used "[sic]" generally to mark words misspelled and not grammatical errors; the latter occur with considerable frequency in quoted materials. Latitudes are given in the text for locations along the Labrador coast and for islands in the West Indies from north to south. (5) Other localities: A listing of place-names reported in the literature but not mentioned in the text.

In reviewing some 600 papers, we have had the problem of determining what was a firsthand account and what was an unacknowledged, modified repetition of a previous report. We have probably made some erroneous decisions.

Concerning the reliability of identifications, we have usually accepted published reports at face value. In this connection it may be that more errors were made in the 1900s than in the 1800s, when the bird was abundant. Put another way, identification may have been more of a problem with ornithologists and birdwatchers in recent times than with old time hunters. As Hapgood (1887:39) wrote: "Who can tell of the habits of our wild fowl and aquatic birds as well as the men who, day in and day out, in cold and in heat, and in all kinds of weather, follow shooting for a livelihood?" More specifically: "Every one of these [shorebirds] has its own individual and characteristic whistle, which must be imitated by the gunner as nearly as possible. Each variety must be distinguished and recognized as soon as seen, for they often fly in perfect silence, and will not notice the decoys unless called. They are recognized by their size, color and manner of flight; and an experienced gunner, with perfect eyesight, can tell them apart at a prodigious distance" (Hapgood 1887:33). We were still left with the problem of deciding who was and who was not a professional hunter and of sorting out curlews in ambiguous writing. It is likely that some of the records used in this report represent misidentified Whimbrels. Use of a sighting in this paper gives it no more validity than when it was originally reported.

While the bibliography contains references not used in this publication, including some we have not seen, it is not complete.

To compile the information on Eskimo Curlews for Appendix 1, Barry searched almost all of MacFarlane's 5000 specimen notes for reference to Numenius borealis. However, #1498-1519 were missing from MacFarlane's letters and #4664-4666 had been skipped. He listed #4798- 4800 but had lost track of what the items were. From the cross- reference system and from the series of specimens covered in his notes, we are reasonably sure that the missing numbers did not contain references to Eskimo Curlews.

Figure 1. Reproduction of MacFarlanes specimen note for Item #1800.

After the name of each natural history specimen, whether English or Latin, MacFarlane placed a small question mark. He did not do this with artifacts. Few of his identifications were changed at the Smithsonian Institution. Many of today's bird names, common and scientific, are different from those used in his time. He was unconventional in a minor way in that he capitalized both elements of the scientific name.

The current common and scientific names of birds referred to in this report will be found in Appendices 4 and 5.